Troubled Waters
by xXblackcatXx
Summary: The Teen Titans go on a short camping trip. There, they meet someone who has a surprising talent. But why is she so hesitant to share it with them?rnrnThis is my first fanfic. Contains OC. Shippers, please don't attack me.
1. Prologue

"­Oooh, I am so excited!" gushed Starfire, clasping her hands together.

"We know," replied Raven dryly from her left.

Beast Boy leaned with his elbow protruding slightly from the window of the T-Car. He watched the trees whoosh past with a bored expression. ­"Are we there yet?" he whined, directing the question to the front of the car where Cyborg and Robin were sitting.

"We have almost arrived at our destination, no?" added Starfire eagerly.

"Y'all will know when we get there," explained Cyborg in a gentle voice, "Because _the car will stop!_" he yelled furiously.

Starfire was put off, but only briefly. "It will be wonderful to spend three entire days out in natural surroundings," she bubbled after a short moody silence had passed. "I think I am going to enjoy this 'camping'."

"_We know_," groaned Beast Boy.

Raven had been vainly trying to read a book for most of the journey, growing more and more irritated. Now she snapped it shut with a loud noise, causing both Beast Boy and Starfire to glance at her wide-eyed. "This had better be worth it," Raven warned Cyborg darkly.

"Don't worry," said Cyborg with a cheerful grin. "It _will_ be."

"Even superheroes need vacations," Robin added with a laugh. "Cyborg," he said suddenly, pointing a gloved finger out the front window, "This is it."

"Looks good to me," Cyborg shrugged. He brought the T-Car to a halt.

The ans spilled out of the car, most of them stretching and yawning, weary from the far-too-long drive. They wandered from the gravelly road to survey their campsite, which was marked out with thin, worn wooden posts protruding from the ground. Small tufts of grass poked up through the dry earth, growing longer and lusher towards the edges of the clearing where they no doubt received more shade. Trees towered above them, swaying slightly in the breeze.

Starfire spread her hands up to the sky, taking in a deep breath of the fresh air. Her bell-like laughter echoed around the area. "Glorious!"

"Okay, Titans," declared Robin slightly dubiously. "Time to set up the tents."

"Uh – you know what?" said Beast Boy with a wide and hopefully convincing grin. "I'm gonna go take a look around. You know, check it all out."

Ignoring a raised eyebrow from Raven, he quickly changed into a hawk and soared away before anyone could object.

When he decided he had put enough distance in between himself and work, he swooped low to the ground, switching to human form as he dropped onto the forest floor.

"Mister Smooth," he congratulated himself smugly. "Now… where to crash until the tents are set up?" Beast Boy looked around. He was met by silence of the forest, broken only by birdsong from high up in the trees, and the nearby sound of running water.

With a small shrug, he started to head towards the sound of the stream.

Pushing through some bushes, to his surprise, he found himself on a small dirt pathway. It vanished around a corner. The sound of the water seemed to come from that direction.

Having nothing better to do, and needing to pass the time, Beast Boy began to stroll down the path. As he rounded the corner, the sound of running water grew even louder, and the stream came into sight

There was nothing much remarkable about the river. It was medium-sized, deep enough to be good to swim in, but not too wide. The path Beast Boy was standing on led to a small wooden bridge looking like it had seen better days, arching over a narrow part of the stream. There wasn't much remarkable about the bridge either; apart from the person standing on it.

She was quite small, and slimly built – slightly shorter than Beast Boy himself. She had quite dark brown hair, which was straight but for a curl near the tips. There was nothing unordinary about her hair, nor her clothes; she was wearing a darkish pink top which cut across her shoulders with three-quarter sleeves, a short black skirt, knee-length white socks, and black sandal shoes. Her deep blue eyes were fixed on the stream running below the bridge.

In short, she looked average. But things are not always as they seem, for one hand was extended, fingers splayed, out over the water. And, unfurling slowly as she moved her fingers, was a tendril of clear liquid.

Suspended in mid-air between her hand and the stream.


	2. Part One

"That's amazing!" exclaimed Beast Boy, starting towards her.

The girl shrieked, spinning around to face him. A wave of water hit Beast Boy, leaving him standing there shocked and sopping wet.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" she gasped, a hand to her mouth. Colour rose in her cheeks. "Are you okay? Y-you gave me a fright…"

Recovering from his surprise, Beast Boy changed swiftly into a dog and shook himself dry. Morphing back into human form, he wrung the last of the water from his ear. "No worries," he grinned.

"So… you were saying?" the girl queried with an embarrassed smile.

"That was awesome!" Beast Boy said.

He came up hard against a wall when she replied, sounding puzzled, "Huh? What was?"

"You know, the thing, with the water…" he said, trailing off.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she laughed in a perplexed way.

"Dude, you _must_ know what I'm talking about!" Beast Boy cried incredulously, flailing his arms about. "You were the one doing it!"­­­

"I already told you!" she hissed, suddenly angry. "I wasn't doing anything with the water!"

Beast Boy raised his hands. "Whoa, take it easy," he said, immediately backing down. "I just thought-"

"Yeah, well you thought wrong!" She began to step away, a frightened look pulling at her features. "Look, I… I have to go," she concluded, flustered. "You must've imagined it."

With that, she walked quickly away down the path in the opposite direction to where Beast Boy had come from, to merge into the forest.

A completely bewildered Beast Boy watched her go, his ears drooping slightly. "But if I imagined it," he said, speaking to nobody but himself, "Where are you going?"

X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X

"Beast Boy!" Starfire greeted him as he entered their camp. "Was your exploration successful? What did you discover?"

"There's a stream over there somewhere," Beast Boy replied slightly sheepishly, gesturing behind him.

"Very specific," remarked Raven, who was sitting on a folding chair in the shade of the trees, reading from her book.

Beast Boy shot her a glare before looking around the clearing. "Uh… where exactly are the tents?"

Starfire came to stand beside him, and looked anxiously across to where the material of one of the two tents was spread out on the ground in preparation. There were two Robin-and-Cyborg-shaped figures underneath the material, struggling with the tent. A lot of shouting was coming from them.

Beast Boy walked over to survey their progress. An instruction booklet was lying tossed on the ground. He picked it up, and compared the picture in the booklet to the tent in front of him. He could see no obvious likenesses. "Have you guys done ANYTHING since I went?"

There was some rustling of fabric shifting, and Robin appeared from a flap, looking extremely fed up. A vein throbbed in his forehead. "Well, maybe we _would_ have if CYBORG would just listen to me!" he said acidly.

"You are NOT saying this is MY fault!" Cyborg's indignant – and slightly muffled – voice came from somewhere inside the folds of tent material.

Beast Boy sighed as Robin disappeared again, and the bickering began once more. "Why don't you just look in the instruction booklet?" he suggested dryly.

"NO!" refused two voices simultaneously.

"Raven?" said Starfire tentatively. "Should we not begin the construction of our own fabric-house?"

Raven looked up from her book and spread her hand. The instruction booklet disentangled itself from a surprised Beast Boy's fingers and soared across the clearing to land in her open palm. She studied it for a moment, then looked up again at Starfire. "I guess."

"Wonderful! I shall retrieve the bags," beamed Starfire, heading over to the T-Car and opening the boot. Carrying bags and bags of heavy poles and material was no difficulty for the Tamaranian. She piled them all into her arms and set off to where Raven was climbing to her feet.

"Azerath Metrion Zinthos," murmured Raven.

The bag on top of the heap Starfire was holding rose up, and various metal poles spilled out to hang in the air. Raven examined them all, glancing occasionally down at the booklet she was still holding. Then, with a wave of her free hand, the poles all soared through the air to match the arrangement in the book. The remaining bags lifted from Starfire's hands, their contents all gliding smoothly from inside them. The bulky material slowly unrolled to become the shape of the tent. Poles positioned themselves and ropes snaked about before being lashed down by pins flying from the sky like bullets.

Eventually, the tent was standing in front of them. Starfire looked startled as the empty bags dropped back into her hands. "Is it fully functional?" she queried cautiously.

"Fully," confirmed Raven, already settling back down to her book.

Starfire carefully entered the tent. "It is quite spacious," she commented. "Should I set up my – stuff – to one side?"

"Knock yourself out," answered Raven.

Starfire looked hurt. "Why would you wish me to do that?"

"It means 'go ahead'," explained Beast Boy with a laugh, who had come to inspect their tent. "Not bad," he observed, poking his head in. "Looks a heck of a lot better than the guys' tent."

"Yo, BB!" yelled Cyborg, outraged. "Either come help us, or get lost!"

"Anyone else in the mood for an ice-cream?" groaned Robin, emerging again.

The response was a general 'YES'.

"There's a dairy near the entrance to the camp grounds," Robin announced, wiping his forehead. "Who's going to go get them?"

"Beast Boy," voted Cyborg and Raven simultaneously.

"No way!" retorted Beast Boy heatedly.

"Well, you're not exactly helping," Robin pointed out.

"A simple activity might keep you entertained," suggested Starfire tactfully.

"But-" began Beast Boy.

"Hm… actually, maybe it's not simple enough," stated Cyborg, shaking his head doubtfully.

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Beast Boy demanded suspiciously.

"No offence, man, but you'd probably forget which flavours we wanted by the time you got there," Cyborg replied.

"What!" cried Beast Boy, puffing his chest up indignantly. "I so would not!"

"Prove it, then," said Robin slyly, catching on.

"Fine then! I will!" declared Beast Boy.

Robin and Cyborg exchanged a smirk.

"I'll have vanilla," said Robin, dropping some coins into Beast Boy's palm.

"Chocolate for me," Cyborg said.

"I desire… hmm…" Starfire tipped her head to one side, contemplating her options. "Do they have cheese flavour?" she proposed. Beast Boy stared at her, and she started blushing.

"Perhaps they should," said Robin hastily. "But I don't think they will. Maybe you should get… strawberry?"

"Okay," she agreed quickly.

"What about you, Raven?" called Beast Boy, turning to the solitary figure seated in the shade. "Lemon perhaps?"

"You're hilarious," came the sarcastic reply. "Get me boysenberry… or blueberry."

"What's the magic word?" Beast Boy teased.

The instruction booklet flew from the sky to whack him on the head. "NOW."

"Ow… Close enough." Beast Boy started to walk away down the road, rubbing his head and wincing. Suddenly a thought occurred to him, and he turned mistrustfully back to the rest of the Titans. "Cyborg, are you just saying that to-"

"If you don't think you can manage," called Cyborg sweetly, "I'll go for you!"

"No way!" Beast Boy yelled. He set off down the road with reinforced determination.

X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X

"Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, berry," Beast Boy muttered to himself as he strode along the road. "Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, berry."

With a confident smirk, he stretched his arms above his head. He could so do this.

"Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, berry. Strawberry, vanilla… no… wait." He stopped walking. "_Chocolate_, vanilla, strawberry… lemon? No, that was what I said to her… Vanilla, chocolate, _berry_… no, wait, strawberry was what Starfire wanted. Uh… cornflakes? No… was it mint!" He hung his head in anguish. "Oh, man!"

"Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, berry?" offered a voice from the shadows of the forest.

Beast Boy turned to stare as the girl he had seen earlier that day walked out from the trees; now she had a black backpack on her back. "It's you!"

"It's me all right," she laughed.

They fell into step.

"Where are you going? To buy ice-creams?" she asked.

Beast Boy glanced at her. "Yeah. I'm sweltering hot."

"That's a lot of ice-creams for one person," she laughed.

He joined in sheepishly. "I mean, they're for my friends and me. Not just me."

There was an awkward silence as they continued down the road together.

"Look, sorry for freaking before," she said finally, biting her lip. "I… thought I was alone. I didn't know you had seen me… you know…"

"Doing the thing with the water?" Beast Boy suggested when she appeared lost for words.

"Yeah," she agreed with a smile. "The thing with the water."

"It's okay," Beast Boy assured her quickly. "It doesn't matter."

She looked at him sideways. "You… you don't think I'm a weirdo?" she asked hesitantly, as if she did not really want to hear the answer.

"Of course not! I think it's awesome. That you can…" he trailed off.

"Do the thing with the water?"

"Do the thing with the water," he agreed, laughing.

"I never introduced myself," she said suddenly, stopping. Beast Boy stopped as well.

"I'm Rose," she said, extending a lightly tanned hand.

"Beast Boy," he replied, shaking it.

Grinning at each other for no real reason, they continued on their way. The dairy had slowly been approaching. Now it squatted in front of them.

Beast Boy opened the door for Rose with a charming smile. "Ladies first."

"What a sexist," she replied, laughing to let him know she was joking. She entered the dairy. Beast Boy followed her.

There were no other people in the dairy, apart from a bored-looking teenager leaning against the counter reading a magazine. He closed the magazine and flashed them a quick polite smile as they made their way over to the chilled glass container with the tubs of ice-cream inside.

Beast Boy studied the different ice-creams in the glass container, and then counted out enough coins to pay for five.

"So, what'll it be?" asked the employee, seeing Beast Boy had obviously chosen.

"I'd like five single-scoops," replied Beast Boy, placing the money on the counter.

The teenager picked up a scoop. "Which flavours?" he prompted.

Beast Boy opened his mouth to reply, but Rose got there first.

"Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, berry."

"How long were you following me for?" Beast Boy laughed.

"Long enough," she said with a smile.

The employee serving them didn't ask, just placed the four ice-creams in the ice-cream holder on top of the glass and waited expectantly.

Rose glanced at Beast Boy. "What about you? Aren't you getting anything?"

"Oh, yeah," said Beast Boy sheepishly. "Uh… another chocolate one, thanks."

"I'd like a single cookies-n-cream, please," added Rose. She fumbled about in a pocket in her black skirt for the money. "Just a sec…"

Beast Boy placed an extra coin on the bench. He smiled at her.

Rose started to colour, and averted her eyes. "Beast Boy… I can, you don't have to-"

"Don't worry about it," Beast Boy told her. "It's not my money anyway." He laughed, and Rose hesitantly joined in.

They left the dairy each carrying three ice-creams, with some difficulty. At first, they just walked at the normal speed, chatting lightly. But before long, they were sprinting down the road, trying in vain to lick up the trails of melting ice-cream sliding down their arms.

Finally, the campsite came into view. Beast Boy raced up to Robin and Cyborg, who had finally managed to begin constructing something looking vaguely like it could sometime become a tent. "Take it!" he panted. They both rescued the slimy cones from his grasp, thankful for the serviettes plastered around them, and started working to lick up all the liquid trickling earthwards.

Beast Boy bent over double, trying to get his breath back, still laughing breathlessly. Starfire approached him.

"Where is my iced cream?" she questioned him curiously.

Beast Boy blinked and straightened, looking around. "Rose?"

She was standing on the road, at the border of their campsite, watching him uncertainly. The ice-creams were still in her loose grasp. She now seemed oblivious to the stickiness dripping down her arm. Beast Boy gestured her over, and she timidly walked forwards, as if she had been forbidden to enter.

Starfire flew to her, and took her ice-cream, thanking her heartedly. "Welcome to our campsite, stranger!"

Raven's ice-cream climbed into the air, and flew towards the silhouette still seated in the shade under the trees. Rose watched it go in astonishment. She reached Beast Boy, Robin and Cyborg, and stood slightly behind Beast Boy, studying the others cautiously.

"This is Rose," Beast Boy proclaimed. "Rose, meet Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven," he said, gesturing to each in turn.

Rose shook Robin and Cyborg's hands, smiling hesitantly. "Hi."

"Pleasure to meet you, Rose," said Robin politely.

Rose withdrew, and stood looking uncomfortably around.

"Wait til you see what she can do!" Beast Boy grinned.

Rose looked at him with a shocked expression, like she hadn't been expecting him to tell anybody about her talent. "It's… it's nothing."

"It so is not nothing," Beast Boy argued, seemingly confident enough for the both of them.

"Whereabouts is your campsite?" Robin asked, directing the question to Rose.

"I… I don't have one," replied Rose, cringing in embarrassment. "The owners just let me stay here, because… I have nowhere else to go."

Robin and Cyborg exchanged a startled glance, then looked at Beast Boy to see if he had already found this out. When discovering that obviously he hadn't, Robin replied, for lack of anything else to say, "Don't you get cold?"

"It doesn't bother me," Rose answered with a shrug.

Starfire swooped over to them. "Why do you not stay here with us for the time we are here?" she suggested slowly, an idea brewing in her head. "We have plenty of space for another in our tent."

Rose stared at her wide-eyed, then looked at Robin anxiously. "No," she stammered, "I couldn't…"

"Yes, you could," urged Beast Boy.

"I guess it would be no trouble," added Robin thoughtfully.

"I…" Rose began.

"Why not?" said Cyborg.

"We're only here for two nights," Beast Boy said.

"But…" Rose looked around at all the encouraging faces turned towards her, and her resolve started to weaken. "You're sure I wouldn't get in the way?"

"Absolutely!" beamed Starfire.

"I… I suppose it's only for two nights…" Rose said.

"Is that a yes?" Beast Boy pressed.

Rose rolled her eyes at him. "Yes."

"Cool!" he beamed.

"What is it that you _can_ do?" questioned Cyborg.

"The thing with the water?" contributed Beast Boy when she said nothing, just stood there staring at Cyborg with a strange half-frightened half-bemused expression on her face. This time she didn't laugh at their private joke, but turned her face away, deep blue eyes looking anywhere but at the four ans standing before her. She muttered something incomprehensible.

Beast Boy had a go at translating it. "You'll show us?"

Her head shot up, eyes wide and brow furrowed. "No!" she said, too quickly and too loudly.

They stared blankly at her.

"Well, okay then," Robin said eventually. He glanced at Cyborg. "Let's go finish the guys' tent. Feel free to make yourself comfortable in the other," he added to Rose.

"You guys better get a move on if you want to be finished by nightfall," Beast Boy said.

"Ha, ha," Cyborg grumbled sarcastically. "Shut up, man."

"I hope you enjoy your stay with us, Rose," Starfire said with a sweet smile. "Now I must continue arranging our temporary plastic furniture."

As she flew off, Beast Boy turned to Rose, a concerned look on his face. "Dude, what happened there?"

Rose hung her head. "I'm sorry. I just..." she began, then stopped mid-sentence. "I knew this wasn't a good idea," she murmured sadly.

"This isn't some sort of test that you're gonna pass or fail," Beast Boy explained disbelievingly. "We only offered some shelter. You don't have to live up to any expectations. We don't _have _any expectations of you! What's the big deal?"

"I'm just not used to blabbing around about my 'talent', okay?" she hissed maliciously.

Beast Boy looked incredulous. "So I'm supposed to pretend that you _have_ no 'talent' to my friends? You can't make me lie to them," he warned her.

"I wasn't trying to!" she protested furiously. "What the heck gave you that idea?"

"Calm down!"

"I am calm! You want to see me mad!"

She glared at Beast Boy, hostility burning in her eyes, fist unconsciously clenched so tight it began to crush the cone of the ice-cream she was still holding without her even noticing.

"No," Beast Boy said eventually, relaxing his aggressive posture with a sigh.

Rose blinked, looking surprised at the sudden withdrawal.

Before either of them could say anything more, Robin called, "Beast Boy! Come here for a sec!"

Beast Boy gave Rose a look that tugged at her heart, something that was a cross between confusion and disappointment. Then he ran off to hold some pole or other in place for Robin and Cyborg.

Rose watched him go, looking ashamed and miserable, feeling compelled to run after him and beg for forgiveness. She felt even more alone then when she was actually by herself. Standing isolated, abandoned by the one person who linked her to these strangers.

_Standing abandoned on the street._

She rubbed her forehead wearily, then set her face into a determined expression. She would not stuff this up for herself. She had to learn to relax. Let go.

_But it's so hard. After…_

Rose gritted her teeth. Maybe it was finally time to define the line between the past and the future.

X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X

"So, who's going to cook?" Robin asked. "Because I'm definitely not."

"Not me," chorused Cyborg and Beast Boy.

"No way," called Raven from inside the girls' tent.

Starfire looked from face to face. "What is happening?" she questioned innocently. A smile started to dawn on her face. "I have been assigned to prepare our evening meal?"

"NO," countered Robin, Beast Boy and Cyborg together, understandably reluctant to have some Tamaranian who-knows-what shoved down their throats.

"Rose can't cook! She's our guest!" Beast Boy pointed out.

Rose gave him a small smile. So he was not mad at her anymore, if he ever had been. He had been tied up doing chores setting up the camp for most of the afternoon, so she had spent the time instead with Starfire, itching to know if he was speaking to her or not. The alien girl seemed not to notice Rose's discomfort at being around them, and her cheerful chatter had a way of making you feel like maybe you did belong after all. She had learnt a lot about the Titans and what they did from Starfire.

"No, I don't mind," Rose shrugged. "I have to do something to earn my keep."

Beast Boy started to protest, but she cut him off. "Beast Boy, don't worry. I promise it won't taste too bad," she said with a grin. "I stayed at a café for several months once, working. I learnt the basics there. And besides, all I have to do is chuck a whole lot of stuff in a pot. I know where the campsite stoves are."

"Well, that's a step ahead of the rest of us, I guess," Cyborg said with a shrug.

X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X

Rose glanced around.

"Listen, guys," she said hesitantly, her voice sounding small and pathetic even to her own ears. She cleared her throat, and said, louder, "I'm just gonna go for a walk. Is that okay?"

The six of them were seated on folding chairs placed – thanks to Starfire – in a rough circle, facing inwards to one another. They had just finished eating dinner, and the plates were still on most of their laps. Raven was still finishing off her food.

Robin raised his eyebrow. "It's pretty dark," he stated, staring around at the ominous-looking trees surrounding their clearing. "You sure?"

"Yes," she confirmed steadfastly. She was starting to get that all-too-familiar ache from somewhere inside her. Like someone had a hold of something inside her chest and was tugging it slowly downwards.

"Well, it's your decision," Robin said.

Rose smiled, and stood. She carefully placed her used plate, cutlery and empty glass in the dirty dishes container, and headed off by herself into the night. Towards the stream.

The Titans watched her go.

"What do you think about her?" Robin said softly. "Should we trust her?"

"We still haven't seen what she can do," Cyborg pointed out. "Only BB has."

"What exactly is it that she can do, anyway?" Robin asked curiously.

Beast Boy hesitated. Rose had seemed so reluctant to share her special talent with them, although he had no idea why. For a moment he felt as if he might as well be ripping clumsily through her delicate veil of privacy and running off with the remains. Then he reminded himself of where his loyalty primarily lay. "She has some form of control over water."

"I think we should wait until she shows us the full extent of her powers before we judge her," Raven suggested. "We don't know how much of a threat she is to us."

"Dude, I don't think the issue is whether or not we can trust her," Beast Boy said. "I mean, she obviously doesn't trust us. Shouldn't we start there?"

"She trusts you," Robin said, speaking so pointedly that Beast Boy started to colour.

"You all talk of her as if she is some form of project," Starfire commented in a concerned tone of voice before the changeling could say anything else.

"We need to know if we can trust her," Robin explained. "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to invite her to stay with us."

"What? Why! It's not like she's gonna attack us in the middle of the night!" Beast Boy exclaimed furiously.

"But how can we be sure of that?" Robin countered. "We need to find out more about her."

"For example, where can she possibly be going at this time of night?" Raven said.

"Beast Boy…" Robin began.

Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine, I'll follow her. But I'm not going to just spy on her, and report back to you, alright?" He changed into a sleek cat, and was soon gone. Away into the dark forest.

He could guess where she had gone.

X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X

"Rose."

She was sitting on the bank of the stream, near the bridge where he had first seen her. Her head whipped around, and her muscles visibly tensed, then, when she saw it was him, relaxed. "Beast Boy?"

"I just came to, you know, check if you were okay…" Beast Boy said, walking forwards tentatively.

She didn't say anything, just watched him as he approached, her eyes glinting slightly in the moonlight. He seated himself beside her, and they both faced straight ahead. The only sound was the river.

"So… are you? Okay, that is," he said eventually, breaking the silence between them.

"Yeah."

Rose absently twirled her finger in a slow circle. A strand of water split from the lazy stream, spiralling gently upwards towards her finger.

Beast Boy watched the water. He was thinking furiously of something else to say. "Dinner was delish!" he grinned eventually. "You're a great cook."

Rose gave a wry laugh. "My one and only skill. I guess I have to be good at something."

"Are you kidding?" he demanded incredulously, gesturing to the water floating in mid-air. "You're telling me that's not a skill?"

She pursed her lips. "'Skill' is not exactly the word I'd use," she said after a while.

"So what word would you use?" he asked curiously.

Rose abruptly withdrew her hand, releasing her hold on the water. It fell back into the stream with a small splash. "I'd say curse would be closer to the mark," she said, trying to make her voice sound cheerful and carefree, like she was making a joke. All the same, her mouth went tight as she finished speaking, and she stared fixedly ahead.

Beast Boy watched her face in a confused manner, then turned his gaze also to the river running below them also. "I don't get how…" he began uncertainly.

Rose exploded. "Of course you don't 'get how'!" she yelled. "Where you come from, your abilities are seen as amazing, wondrous, and something to _wish_ you had! But did you ever wonder what it _could_ be like? If things turned the other way? You don't know how many days I spent alone, just because of this!"

There was a short silence, Rose's words ringing in the air. Then she began to speak again. Her voice was quiet this time, sadness and loneliness draped through it. "You don't know what it's like. To have people scared of you, seeing you as a threat, or a freak. Like if they got too close, they'd become infected or something."

Dazed, Beast Boy said, "Sorry… I didn't mean to-"

"Beast Boy, let me tell you a story," said Rose, talking over him as if he hadn't even spoken. "Once upon a time, there was a little girl.

"She lived with her family in an average-ish house in a small village. When she was very young, she found that she could make the water move, without touching it. For a long time, nobody but her knew about this.

"Then, one day, she made the mistake of sharing her ability with others. She had practised and practised until she was very good at controlling the water." A sleek sheen of sarcasm flooded over Rose's words. "She was thinking to put on a _grand_ _show_ for some selected people of the village. Her parents let her go through with it in an amused fashion, right down to special invitations, because she didn't tell them what exactly the 'trick' she was going to be doing was.

"Humans fear things they don't understand. They were first shocked at what she was doing with the water. Then they were afraid. And they didn't want to be afraid.

"They…" Rose's voice grew soft, and her eyes moistened. She wiped them hastily, her motions jerky as if she was angry at herself for getting upset over something she had promised not to. She licked her dry lips and determinedly continued. "Her parents couldn't stop them. The people cast her into the river there and then, and shouted to her as she floated away, that she was unwelcome to their village – to the only home she had ever known.

"She… never saw her family again."

Beast Boy didn't know what to say. "I'm so sorry," he said awkwardly. He gingerly placed his hand on her shoulder. "That's horrible."

"Yeah, well, that's life, isn't it?" said Rose humourlessly. Still she kept her head straight ahead, looking into the water. A smile that didn't reach her eyes tugged at the corners of her mouth. "It was lucky for me that the people didn't think about what to do with me _before_ they acted, or else they might have 'disposed' of me another way. But as it was, although at first I nearly drowned, I used my control to help keep me afloat. My powers were far too weak to control the whole river, but at least they could control enough water to ensure my survival."

There was a pause.

"I'm used to keeping my powers a secret. Most people react to them badly. That's why I was so defensive when I first met you, and the others," Rose said, speaking quickly as if the words had been bottled up, and a cork tugged from in front of them. "People who weren't afraid of me, and even possessed unique talents of their own." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I thought it was just too good to be true."

Beast Boy squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. The seconds ticked past as they sat there, Beast Boy growing more and more acutely aware of his hand still resting on her shoulder. He didn't want to withdraw it, for fear of her misinterpreting it as he had finished sympathising and was ready to get on with life. But it was almost painful to leave it there.

"I guess we should be getting back," Rose said eventually.

She half-turned towards him in preparation for standing, and briefly touched the hand on her shoulder with her fingers. He glanced at her, and she smiled, acknowledging… something. Beast Boy wasn't exactly sure what. He wasn't even sure that she knew what. But whatever it was, it was acknowledged in that small moment.

Then they were both climbing to their feet, and Rose started walking away.

"Rose," Beast Boy said suddenly.

She turned to him, and he found that he couldn't find the right words to express what he was feeling. He fumbled for them as they slipped through his grasp. Away they went, into the vast nothingness lurking in the corners of being.

"We… we're here for you," he said eventually.

Rose gave him a smile, small, but filled with gratitude. Her eyes seemed to light up. Beast Boy felt a strange chill run down his spine.

She said nothing.

She didn't need to.


	3. Part Two

Rose's eyes fluttered open.

For a blank second, she was confused, wondering what the beige material shifting slightly above her was doing there. Then the memories and emotions of the previous day came flooding back; the shock she felt as she first saw the boy watching her playing with water; the surprise when he wasn't afraid of her; the timidity and fear of rejection when she was introduced to his other friends; but most of all, the longing in her heart, for she had finally found some people who were _like_ her, and that maybe, one day, she could _belong _with.

Rose stretched and rolled over, blinking blearily. Luckily for her, the Titans had brought an extra inflatable mattress along in case one was damaged somehow. It had been lent to her to sleep on while she stayed with them.

She had been placed against the wall of the tent. There was a walking space, then Starfire's mattress, then another walking space, then Raven's. Starfire was in her sleeping bag, fast asleep. Rose carefully sat up, trying not to let her sleeping bag rustle. Raven's bed was empty.

Rose quietly climbed to her feet, dazedly untangling herself from her sleeping bag. She painstakingly unzipped the tent flap so as not to wake Starfire, and exited, half-closing it behind her.

She stood looking around the campsite, shivering and rubbing her bare arms – she was dressed in her pyjamas, which consisted of a pale pink singlet and hot-pink silk pants. Not exactly enough to protect her from the cool morning.

The campsite looked strange with nobody bustling around it. The chairs were scattered, deserted where they had been left last night. One was overturned, probably due to some wind in the night time.

With nothing better to do, Rose righted it, and set herself down in it to wait for someone else to wake. She absently pondered about where Raven had gone; by the sound of it, she did a lot of meditating... maybe that's where she was.

Without warning, a loud zipping noise rang through the air. Rose jumped in surprise, and watched the tent flap of the boys' tent as it was unzipped. Robin emerged from it, fully clad in his clothes, mask and all.

"Good morning," she said with a shy smile.

"Hey," he replied. He glanced around. "You the only one up?"

"Raven isn't in the tent, but she's not here either," Rose said. "Otherwise, yes."

Robin looked at the girl he had met yesterday sitting alone in the chair, watching him cautiously. She looked so tense, and his curious nature made him want to know why. _Why_ was she so timid? It was a mystery, and mysteries had to be solved. Perhaps Beast Boy knew… but in the meantime, the only way to get information out of her was to get to know her. He might as well learn a little about her.

"We don't really know each other very well," Robin said, walking over to the clean dishes container, and beginning to set out the plates on their plastic folding table. "So… tell me about yourself."

She visibly stiffened. Okay, maybe that could've been a little more subtle, he thought.

"Well… I… I like cooking," Rose said hesitantly.

"You're good at it, too," he said with a smile, eager to smooth over his clumsy mistake. If he ever wanted to earn her trust, he realised, he would have to be very careful at judging what to say and when to say it.

"Thanks," she said nervously.

"Would you like to make breakfast tomorrow?" he queried. "We can buy some ingredients from the dairy down by the entrance today if you want."

"Sure!" she said eagerly.

"So, what do you want to make?" Robin asked, beginning to pour himself out some cornflakes into his bowl. "Beast Boy's a vegetarian, by the way."

"Is he?" Rose's eyes clouded over slightly as she thought this over. A small smile twitched her lips up; she didn't even notice.

Robin turned hid his face by intently reading the back of the cereal packet so she wouldn't see him grinning. "Yeah, that's right. So you'll have to take that into account."

"Okay. What about… pancakes?" she asked after a moment's thought.

"Sounds nice," Robin encouraged. "Oh yeah, by the way, we're going to go swimming after breakfast. So…" He left the suggestion open.

"Oh, okay," she said, picking up the hint that she could finally show them her powers, but not knowing how to respond to it. "Um… whereabouts?"

"It's some river just out of the campgrounds," Robin informed her. "We're going to go by car."

She looked dismayed by this. "How long will you be?"

"You're coming," he laughed, misinterpreting her chagrin.

"Oh, right!" She forced a laugh.

He could tell that for some reason, she was unhappy. At least she made the effort to _seem_ content, Robin thought with a shrug as he started chewing on his cereal.

X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X

"Beast Boy, you're on dishes," Robin enlightened the changeling as he passed him on his way to the tent.

"Oh, man!" Beast Boy groaned as he swallowed the last of his cereal. "I always have to do everything!"

"I'll help you," Rose said immediately, jumping at the chance to be alone with Beast Boy. She climbed to her feet and grabbed the dirty dishes container, heaving it over to Beast Boy.

He stood and carefully balanced his bowl on top of the pile in the box. "Why are you so eager?" he grumbled, wrestling the heavy plastic container from a reluctant Rose.

"I can show you where the sinks are," Rose said loudly. As they began to walk down the road, she hissed under her breath, "I really need to talk to you!"

He looked slightly surprised. "Uh… about what?"

"We're… going swimming today, aren't we?" She watched him out of the corner of her eye. When he looked at her, she quickly looked down at the road in front of her.

"Yeah," Beast Boy confirmed, still looking lost. "Oh… you're afraid of showing the others the thing with the water," he said as it dawned on him. "Look, they-"

"No, it's not that," Rose cut him off, glancing around nervously. "It's something else."

"Huh…? It is? What?"

"We're going in the car…"

"T-Car," he absently corrected her.

"…I… I can't."

"You can't?" he raised an eyebrow. "Can you… elaborate on that at all?"

Rose sighed. Might as well get it over with. "It's just… I'm not very good in vehicles like cars, buses, trains… _especially_ trains." She shuddered.

"You mean… you're scared of them?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "I hate travelling almost any other way than walking. And… well… um, this might take a while to explain…" she hesitated.

Beast Boy smiled. "I've got time," he said. Rose instantly felt comforted.

"Here goes… Well, with my… power… I kind of _need_ to use it, if that makes sense."

"Nope," Beast Boy said unhelpfully.

Rose sighed. "Well, if I haven't used it for a while, it starts to _tug_ on me. In here somewhere." She tried to pinpoint the area with her hand, eventually ending up just below her collarbones. "It pulls and pulls, the longer I go without... linking myself to the water." She laughed self-consciously, abruptly relieving the serious expression on her face. "I'm talking gibberish."

"Keep going," Beast Boy prompted.

"Mm…" Now that she had stopped, she seemed unable to continue. Finally, she forced her tongue to start moving again. "See, the pulling, it gets painful, if I go for too long. It's like… I can't describe it! I'm connected to water. Everywhere around me, I can feel it. For you, it's… maybe similar to feeling the warmth or coolness of the air. You know?"

Beast Boy didn't, but he said yes anyway.

Growing more confident at his understanding, Rose said, "Well, yeah. I can reach out to this connection at any time, and gather the particles of water near me…"

She raised her hand. Almost instantly, a ball of mist rushed into existence. It floated above her hand, rotating, swirling. "See? That was just from some of the air near us. I can shift the water around, even to another form." To demonstrate, her brow furrowed slightly, and the mist collapsed in on itself to become instead a tiny globe of water. Rose smiled triumphantly, as if she hadn't really expected it to work. "It's harder making mist go to water, than vice versa," she explained. "Because you're like, compressing it, and you have to make sure it all goes in the right places… but it _knows_ where it's supposed to be going. It helps me. …I sound like a lunatic."

Beast Boy chuckled. "Don't worry. Everyone thinks I'm a lunatic."

"Only cuz you are," Rose teased, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief.

"See?" he whined. He didn't show it, but he was secretly surprised at her reply. That was quite possibly the first relaxed joke he had heard her make. "So where are you going with all this, anyway?" he probed.

"Oh, right. Well, the point is, it's part of me, wherever I go. Always at the back of my mind. I'm linked to it.

"Playing with water makes me feel comforted. It's like, if everything's just getting too much for my brain, and all my thoughts are getting tangled around each other so I can't sort them all out, it _helps_. It sorts through everything. While I'm drawing power through the link to water, I'm… at peace with the world."

"I see."

"Okay, good, so far… Well, when I feel an emotion really strongly, like fear for example," Rose continued, starting to sound uncomfortable, like she was guessing he wouldn't like what he was about to hear, "I unconsciously access the water, looking for support, you know? But it's _unconscious,_ so although I can feel the link being drawn on, I'm not aware of exactly _what_ water I'm connecting myself to, or how much of it there is. Do you… understand?"

Beast Boy's brow was furrowed as he thought this over, then slowly smoothed out as realisation crept through him. His eyes grew wide, unusual dark green pupils seeking out her face. "So… what you're saying is that for all you know, you could be causing a tsunami over the other side of the world?"

Rose laughed hesitantly. "Somehow, I don't think my powers are _that_ strong," she said.

Remembrance of the mission he had been given last night flooded back into Beast Boy's head. He had better seize the opportunity while they were on the subject. If he put it off now, when he asked her later, she would probably go into porcupine-mode. And he definitely didn't want that.

"Just curious," Beast Boy said cautiously, "But how strong _are_ your powers?"

Strangely enough, she didn't seem to mind the potentially extremely personal question. She looked surprised, but when she spoke, it became apparent that it wasn't because of the nature of his question. "How _strong_ are they? I don't know! I've always tried to use them as little as possible because the more I used them, the more likely it was that someone would notice."

"Well, what's your guess?" Beast Boy asked, seeing he hadn't been rewarded with any more of an idea than before he had asked.

Now she was looking slightly suspicious at his persistence. "Why do you want to know?"

He shrugged casually, mind racing for an answer. "I was just thinking, if, uh, you do end up coming in the car, we need to know, if you, er, would – cause any damage. You know?" Warming to his surprisingly passable answer, he added, "I just wanted to know how dangerous it would be. Like, whether to bring you with us would be endangering the people and animals, and land and stuff."

Rose paused thoughtfully. "Mm… I don't think so. I mean, for starters, I'm pretty sure I can only access water within a certain range…"

"But how much _of_ it can you 'access' at a single time?" Beast Boy pushed. "Please, we need to know."

Rose's legs stopped moving, and she turned to him, hands on hips. "Should I try?" she asked, fear and excitement flickering in her eyes.

"Uuh… sure," Beast Boy replied, a little uncertainly. "Just… make sure you start smallish, you know, so you…"

"Okay."

Rose turned from him, her eyes closed. Her hand slowly outstretched, and started to move in different directions in the air, like she was searching for something. Suddenly, it halted.

"Stream," she murmured, mainly for her single-person-audience's benefit.

Rose opened her eyes.

A thick tendril of water burst from the trees from the direction her hand was pointing. It snaked straight towards her open palm, then suddenly veered off to spiral around her, whirling in a loose corkscrew upwards. The flow of water finished, and the last slivers of liquid twisted around her to join the rest, floating above Rose's head. Slowly, it swirled around, to become a large clear sphere, suspended above her. It was slightly larger from one side across to the other than Rose was tall.

Rose turned back to Beast Boy, who was staring up at the water in astonishment. She smiled shyly. "I… haven't really tried more than that before," she said.

"Do you think you can?" Beast Boy asked.

Rose, for once, looked confident and eager. "Yes!"

A ribbon of water glided from the forest to circle Rose. It was joined by another, then another. Soon, there were vines of water curling gracefully all around them. They formed a looping, winding pattern around them, but none of the water actually touched either of them.

"Wow," breathed Beast Boy, staring up at the floating snakes of water, which was still appearing, from more than one direction now.

Rose smiled. She was twirling her hands slowly, the water matching her pace. It all seemed to be a part of a gentle, serene dance. Beast Boy held out a hand and placed a finger on a tendril of water that was floating past in front of him. It split around his finger, no water actually touching him.

Rose giggled. "I like having so much at once," she told him. Her hands began to move slightly faster. "It's like… eating a bar of chocolate. Before I was scraping tiny scraps off to have, and now I'm taking enormous, satisfying bites. It's so rich. I can feel the power welled up inside so much of it… I… want to use it."

"Well, be careful," Beast Boy warned nervously. He was picturing the many ways this experiment could go awry.

Rose nodded, and her hands moved quicker. A smile grew on her face as the water around them increased its pace. Faster and faster it went.

Beast Boy tensed, bracing himself for the moment of uncertainty where everything went wrong, and he was left to help her collect her shredded pride and confidence.

But Rose was laughing, her eyes closed in delight, and the water was still coming. Tendrils of it whipped around her body, through her splayed fingers, over her face, around her ankle. Still her hands moved faster until she was positively flinging them about.

"Rose?" Beast Boy frowned. He had to raise his voice because of the wind generated by the rapidly-moving water. "Are you okay?"

She staggered blindly over to him, liquid soaring through all the gaps in the air around them.

"That's enough! Make it stop!" Beast Boy yelled, but his voice was torn away. As Rose reached him, strands of water tearing around them both about a centimetre off their skin, they both extended their hands to each other. She entwined her fingers with his, leaning drunkenly towards him, her laughter growing hysterical. Still, the amount of water she was accessing grew, faster and faster.

Beast Boy looked upwards. A dome of water arched over them, swirling faster and faster. For the first time, real fear set in. Why wasn't she responding?

"Rose!" Beast Boy screamed at the top of his voice. He yanked his fingers away and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. She was sickeningly limp. "_ROSE!_"

She collapsed on him. He shifted his feet to support her as her slim body collided with his, a smile still on her face. She did not answer.

A terrible chill fingered its way through Beast Boy's stomach. He moved her arm so it was over his shoulder, holding her close, staring up at the sky; or where the sky had been.

Now there was only a churning vortex of liquid, surrounding them. Inside the vortex, the tendrils of water still whipped around, moving dangerously rapidly. The wall of water grew nearer to the two of them as the space inside the funnel shrunk. Still, no water had even brushed against Beast Boy's skin, nor, he was sure, had it touched Rose. All the same, he was absolutely terrified. "STOP!" he yelled at Rose.

If her lips hadn't been so close to his ear, he doubted he would have heard her reply.

"Why would I want to?" she whispered.

Beast Boy stared at her in horror, unbearable cold tightening around his gut. There was something horribly wrong with her.

Rose was starting to slip downwards, her legs uselessly crumpling beneath her. Beast Boy carefully lowered her, shifting her weight from his shoulder to the ground. She still had that same exhilarated smile on her face, and that scared him more than anything.

"Rose," he said. This time his voice was quiet, and filled with terror. "Stop it!"

Rose's eyes opened, and he could see a sliver of dark blue. "Why? Why…?" she murmured. "No…"

"I'm scared," Beast Boy pleaded. He was sure that he could make it out of this; he could rely on his many different animal forms to get him out of almost any situation. But Rose? He cradled her upper body in his arms. She felt so frail and helpless. "You're… you're scaring me. Please_, stop_."

For a moment, he thought she hadn't heard him. Then the smile began to fade off her lips, and her eyes closed, then fluttered open again, fully this time. She stared up at him in a dazed fashion, eyes narrowing slightly as they focused. As if seeing everything for the first time, her eyes widened as she glanced around. Whatever trance she had been in, it was broken now. "B…Beast Boy? What have I done!" She clutched his hand in terror.

"Can you make it stop?" was his only response.

"Help me stand," she said, but it was more a plea than a request.

Beast Boy slid his arm around her waist, letting her grip his other arm as, together, they pulled her to her feet. Rose wobbled slightly, and for a second it seemed like her legs would be unable to hold her. Then she steadied herself, and raised her face to the sky. Her arms fell to her sides, then, abruptly, she flung them heavenwards. Instantly, the water responded. The ribbons and strands curling about their figures retreated, hesitantly at first, then streaming away, to an enormous globe, hanging in the air. Rose regarded it for a moment. Then she hurled her arms out to either side of her, stretching as far as she could. The water raced away.

As suddenly as it had first appeared, it was gone.

There was silence. Rose's face was turned away from Beast Boy.

"Rose… are… are you okay?" he asked, yearning for and yet terrified of the answer.

She slowly turned to face him, sadness etched in every aspect of her. "Are _you_? I'm so sorry, I'm so stupid, you could've been hurt…" She hung her head, touching her temple with her fingers, looking utterly appalled at herself.

To her astonishment, he pulled her into a hug. "If you're all right, I'm all right."

Awkwardly and gingerly, Rose hugged him back.

He released her. "So…"

"So," she agreed, nodding slowly like it was a deep and meaningful thought.

Beast Boy smiled. "I guess we'd better get back to the dishes…" he suggested, wordlessly offering to put the whole ordeal behind them, at least for now. He bent down to pick up the near-forgotten container of dirty dishes.

"Look, I don't know why I told you all this," Rose said, her voice barely above a whisper. She tilted her head forwards, brown hair slipping like a barrier between her face and the world. She glanced tentatively up at him through her spiralling strands of hair. "I'm sorry. I don't want to burden you… so if…"

"You told me because I'm your friend," Beast Boy said matter-of-factly, like he was stating some random little snippet of information that had no significance. "And you have gone without a friend for far too long."

She smiled at him, her cheeks reddening slightly.

"We'll make sure you stay calm in the T-Car," Beast Boy continued. "Don't worry… I'm sure you'll be sweet."

X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X

"Okay," Robin said. "Everyone got everything?"

"We are nearing the time of departure," Starfire informed her friends, in case they hadn't realised.

They were all standing around the T-Car, piling bags of towels and swimwear into the boot of the T-Car.

Robin glanced at Beast Boy, then at Rose. "Rose, are you…?"

"Yeah, I'm coming," Rose answered.

"Cool," said Robin with a shrug. He opened the front passenger door of the T-Car and seated himself beside Cyborg.

Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy and Rose glanced at each other, each realising the problem.

"There are three available seats," Starfire stated, "And four of us who wish to sit in one each."

"Beast Boy can change into something small," Raven suggested.

Starfire clapped her hands together, green eyes shining. "Of course! Then the T-Car will be able to accommodate all of us!"

But Beast Boy shook his head. "No, I need to be in human form."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "And… why exactly is that?"

"Rose needs my moral support," Beast Boy announced. He was met with a confused stare from Starfire and a disbelieving snort from Raven. "It's true!" he insisted. "She…"

Rose cut pointedly over him. "I'm afraid of travelling in cars, trains, et cetera," she explained, glancing at Beast Boy. "And my powers can get a little out of control."

"That's what I was going to-" Beast Boy began, puzzled.

"I thought it was better for me to tell them," Rose said evenly.

"Oh, right," said Beast Boy blankly.

"What about if Raven and I each have a turn at flying overhead?" Starfire suggested. She looked at Raven. "Is that a satisfactory arrangement?"

"Whatever," Raven replied. "I'll go first."

"Thank you much, Raven," said Starfire. She opened the back door of the T-Car and seated herself.

Rose went around the other side, carefully climbing in. She slid along to the seat in the middle and fastened her seat belt. Beast Boy clambered in after her, shutting the door.

"Where's…" Robin began.

"Flying overhead," Beast Boy said.

"Seatbelts on, y'all?" Cyborg asked.

"Yes," they chorused apart from Rose, who was too busy being terrified out of her mind to reply.

Cyborg started up the T-Car, and brought it forward so that its nose was slightly over the road. He peered down the road, checking to see if there were any other cars coming, and then pulled out in a burst of turbo. This extracted a small shriek from Rose, earning her a couple of startled glances.

Rose bit her lip and gripped her knees, squeezing her eyes closed. The car moved around her, bumping over the stony road. Her hands tightened on her knees.

"Rose?" came Beast Boy's voice. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Her eyes were still firmly closed.

"Because if you're not, us two can stay behind," Beast Boy offered.

Rose's head shook determinedly, although her face was looking much paler than usual.

Beast Boy shrugged, and turned to look out the window. Trees whooshed past in a blur of green foliage. The sky stretching above was deep blue, adorned with small fluffy puffs of cloud. A perfect day for a swim in a river, thought Beast Boy, his ominous mood lifting slightly.

They were nearing the entrance of the campsite. More and more tents began to appear around them. The people dwelling in them watched the strange car in amusement before it disappeared out of sight.

The Titans had deliberately requested an isolated area for their tent. Naturally, being who they were, they wanted privacy. Most people wanted to get as close to the entrance, which was also where the bathrooms and stoves were, as possible. Therefore, it had been no difficulty for the Titans to attain one of the sections that were deeper into the forest, and further from the facilities.

Cyborg brought the T-Car to a halt at the mouth of the campsite and waited as a couple of cars zoomed past on the street in front of him.

Rose cautiously lifted one eyelid. "Are we there?" she said hopefully. "I guess that wasn't so bad…"

Cyborg pulled out onto the road.

Rose shrieked, grabbing the shoulders of the two front seats. "You're going too fast!" she yelled, eyes wide in panic, leaning forward so that her head was level with Cyborg's and Robin's.

"He's way under the speed limit," Robin pointed out, looking seriously lost.

"Rose! It's okay!" Beast Boy shouted from the back.

"Stop! STOP!" Rose screamed.

"Trying to _concentrate _here," Cyborg hinted, slowing slightly for a corner, then speeding up as it straightened out.

Rose swung herself around, unbuckling her seatbelt in one fluid movement, and clambering up onto her knees on the seat of the car. She practically threw herself on Beast Boy, scrambling for the door handle of the car. "Let me out!"

"Yo! Get your shoes down off the seat, and your butt back on it!" Cyborg protested, glancing back at them via the mirror hanging from the roof.

Beast Boy grabbed Rose's flailing arm with both his hands and jerked it away from the handle. "We're going at 50 miles per hour!" he exclaimed.

"What the-" Robin turned around. He recoiled as Rose's left foot thrashed dangerously near his face. "Rose!"

"Starfire!" shrieked Beast Boy. "A little help! Oof," he involuntarily added as Rose's elbow connected with his stomach.

Starfire reached for Rose's other foot. "Friend Rose!" she said, raising her voice to be heard over the racket Rose was making. "There is nothing to fear! The T-Car is a wondrous object, it will not harm you!" When that produced no change in the situation, she simply seized Rose's ankle and pulled Rose back away from the door with her alien strength.

Rose let go of a deafening scream. Beast Boy leaned over her and clapped his hand over her mouth, cutting it off abruptly. She was now spread right over the three back seats, including the knees of the changeling and Starfire. Still she struggled to get to the door.

"Rose, it's okay, the car is safe – OW!" yelled Beast Boy. His hand shot from over Rose's mouth. "She bit me!"

"This game has gone on for long enough!" Starfire decided. She leaned across and wrapped her arms around the girl's waist and upper arms, dragging her off Beast Boy.

"Help! HELP!" wailed Rose. "Stop! Let me out!"

Then she opened her mouth and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"ROSE!" Beast Boy yelled. "Shut up! It's okay!"

There was a sudden silence, Rose's scream still ringing in the air. Starfire let go of the suddenly stock-still figure. "Rose?"

"Wow, I didn't expect that to actually work…" Beast Boy said.

Rose turned to Beast Boy. A new fear was in her eyes. "Beast Boy! It's happening!" she cried. "I… I can feel it slipping through…" She clutched her head.

"What?" Robin demanded, looking from Rose to Beast Boy. "What's happening?"

Starfire gasped. "Are we witnessing Rose losing control of her powers?"

"She's not losing control of them," Beast Boy explained briefly. "She's using them without knowing what she's controlling!" His team mates looked even more confused than before, but he ignored them, turning to Rose urgently. "Can't you use the link thingy to track the water?"

Rose moaned softly, seeming not to hear him.

"Cy! Can you go any slower?" Beast Boy asked. "Maybe then she'll calm down…"

At that moment, they shot out onto a long bridge. Rose's whimpering stopped, and a tense silence developed inside the T-Car.

Beast Boy glanced out the window. The bridge was over a river. His eyes widened. "Uh… Rose? I think I found the water you're connected to," he gaped.

Ominous rolls were gliding through the river, each growing larger than the one before. As every wave went, ribbons of water split from the surface. They darted about, skimming over the river in a hysterically agitated fashion. As if they suddenly sensed the source of Rose's terror approaching, they stilled. Then, as one, they shot up towards the T-Car.

"Cy!" Beast Boy cried. "Watch out!"

"Huh?" Cyborg glanced back at him. "For what?"

Beast Boy had no time to reply, because the T-Car was suddenly hit by a succession of thumps. One thudded into Beast Boy's window. He stared at the water as it clung unnaturally to the car, quivering slightly. His relief that the water hadn't actually damaged the car or interfered with Cyborg's driving soon gave way to horror as, from the centre out, small fingers of ice began to spread.

"We are under attack!" cried Starfire.

"What is that stuff?" Robin gasped.

"It's just water," said Beast Boy. "And… ice."

"In this weather?" said Robin incredulously. "That _can't_ be normal!"

"The road's blurring a bit," grunted Cyborg as ice webbed out over the front window, "But it's straight right across the bridge, so we should be fine til then."

"And after that?" Robin asked, shocked. Cyborg didn't answer.

"Who is assaulting us?" Starfire questioned, starting to panic.

"It's Rose," said Beast Boy. "But she doesn't mean to!"

The Titans gawped at him.

"Rose-" Beast Boy went to place his hand on Rose's shoulder. Just then, there was a sickening grinding noise from beneath them. Beast Boy froze as the car started to shudder, his hand hovering over Rose's shoulder. "What was that?"

"Ice on the wheels," Cyborg informed him grimly. "The sooner we get off this bridge, the better."

There was a jolt, then another.

"Now what?" Beast Boy shrieked, gripping the back of the seat in front of him.

"Ice on the road!" Robin yelled. "Cyborg, pull over!"

"Where?" Cyborg replied. "We'll get hit by another car!"

Beast Boy pressed himself to his window, and stared at the road. Water was flooding unevenly onto the tar in front of them. As he watched, it all hardened, becoming ice. He had no time to react before they hit the closest mound. The right side of the T-Car jerked roughly upwards so that the entire car was on a tilt. Rose slid limply down onto Starfire; Beast Boy was restrained with his seatbelt.

"We have no choice!" Robin screeched. "Pull over!"

Cyborg jammed on the brakes. The T-Car went skidding, brakes uselessly trying to get a good grip on the wheels. Starfire screamed as the car went spinning wildly out of control. Finally, it slid to a halt. No-one dared to breathe.

The back half of the car was dangling off the bridge.

"Nobody move," said Robin, even though they were all too stunned to anyway. "Okay. Cyborg and I can't move until the rest of you are out, or else…" he trailed off. The T-Car would fall into the river, each of them silently finished in their heads. "You three, unbuckle your seatbelts."

Beast Boy and Starfire, moving painstakingly slowly, carried out the order.

"BB, change into an insect, and fly forwards," said Robin.

"I'm not leaving Rose," Beast Boy protested. "I think she's unconscious."

Robin scowled. "Now is no time for stubbornness!"

"I won't do it," Beast Boy insisted.

Robin sighed, seeing the changeling was not going to change his mind any time soon. "Fine. Starfire, can you…"

"Rose is over me," Starfire said. "I cannot move without moving her. And we need to keep as still as possible, correct?"

"Rose…" Robin began.

"…Is unconscious," Beast Boy reminded him.

There was a cracking noise from the road in front of them.

"I think ice is starting to build up underneath the front wheels," Cyborg said. "We can't stay like this for much longer before we slide off completely."

"Open the doors," Robin said suddenly. "Beast Boy, you can change into a bird, Starfire, you hold Rose. You can both fly out."

"Magnificent idea!" beamed Starfire.

"…But… the doors are iced shut!" Beast Boy grunted, trying his. Starfire heaved at hers, but even her strength could not break the chunky ice spread over the door. The front of the T-Car was now starting to slowly rise.

"Are you sure?" Robin's masked eyes grew round. "That means we can't get out at all! Unless we break the windows… but the ice might be thick there as well, anyway…"

Cyborg emitted a small, pathetic noise of pain.

"Dude!" Beast Boy yelled incredulously. "You're worried about your _car_?"

"My baby!" Cyborg cried, sounding heartbroken.

The front of the T-Car jerked up noticeably. They began to inch backwards.

"Guuuys," Robin warned in a low voice. "Now is not the time…"

"Tell that to Cyborg!" Beast Boy scowled. "We _have_ to smash the windows to get out of this thing!"

"And we're just gonna leave her to drop?" Cyborg gaped. "But…"

Starfire screamed as the back of the car began to dip down off the bridge like a see-saw.

"Do something!" yelled Cyborg, to nobody in particular.

"Titans, get ready for the drop," Robin said, gloved fingers tightening on the handle above the door.

Beast Boy slid across and gathered Rose into his arms, determined to protect her; Starfire blankly buckled her seatbelt, then went to unbuckle it again, realising that if she wanted to escape, this might be a hindrance; and Cyborg, he just sat there looking devastated.

Then down they were plummeting, down towards the churning waters of the river.


End file.
